how do you test your guns accuracy




Do you shoot 3 or 5 shot groups and if so at what distance 50 or 100 yards?

vinniedablade

5 shots and at varying distances. The distance realy just depends on where I am shooting at.

Five rounds at 100 yards, the three round group stuff is just people with excuses.

5-five round groups at the same session...

The smallest is my bragging group-size, the largest is what I will keep in mind for a specific shot, the average is what I use to determine if one load is better/worse than any other.

I will disagree with you about 3 round groups. The Marines, and I believe the other services do the same, use the 3 round group as the basic grouping for the BZO on the KD range. Alot of people stick to their training.

The same could be said for your 5 round group by someone who shoots 10 round groups, the 5 round group stuff is just for people with excuses. And then the people who shoot 20 round groups will say...get the picture?

3, 5, or 100 shots, it doesn't really matter as long as you have good tight groups that are impacting at your point of aim.

Much harder to do same with 20 round shot groups.

When I go in search of a GOOD load in my accurized AR15, I shoot 10 shot groups and will pull the average of 3-4 10 shot groups at 100 yards.


I can honestly say, I have never shot a 3 shot group.   When I started the search for an accurate handload I used to do 5 shot groups and I found that 5 shots wasn't enough for a decent statistical sampling.    I'd get one group that did like 5 shots into 1/2 inch and then when I went to shoot another group I'd have it unexpectedly open up to 3/4 inch.

I was doing all I could to eliminate shooter induced error but I would still have groups doing strange things, one group at 1/4 inch for 3 shots to open up to 1/2 inch or so, another group with 4 shots into 1/2 inch and the 5th putting it at 3/4 inch.

Finally I figured that this was just part of the accuracy capabilities of the rifle with that particular load and 5 shot groups weren't giving me a good example of it's standard distribution.    When I opened up to 10 shot groups I found that I was getting LOTS of 3/4 inch groups and that was about the most that it would open up to.    Within these 10 shot groups I was finding that often times 6-7 shots would go through 1/2 inch or less then 3-4 shots would be responsible for opening the groups up.

I have yet to tune my loads any further than that, I don't have a chronograph so I don't know what my velocity extreme spreads are.   As I start pushing the distances out further it will be important for me to start getting my extreme spreads and standard deviation for velocity to be a little more consistent.

As it stands now, it's just one heck of a nasty squirrel rifle that reigns death on the varmintcong out to rediculous ranges.

Also, the way I shoot my 10 shot groups reflects how I expect to shoot my rifle out in the field.    Often times I shoot my 10 shot groups about as fast as I can line up on target and pull the trigger, out in the field shooting at squirrels it can get BUSY firing 10-20 shots depending on the number of squirrels or missed shots at unknown ranges.    Firing off 10 shots in under 2 minutes is a lot different than firing off 10 shots spaced out over a 1/2 hour.


3 shot groups in my opinion don't give anyone bragging rights, heck when I've put my AR10 on paper testing handloads it's first 3 shots typically go into right around 3/8-1/2 inch but by the 5th shot it almost always opens up to 1 inch as the barrel heats up.   Non-freefloated barrel.    One of these days I'll do a 5 shot group spaced out over a longer period of time to see what it does when it's barrel isn't heating up, or after I get a freefloated handguard on it.


I will also generally do 10 shot groups with my ordinary AR15s to test how they fair between a hot barrel and a colder barrel.    Shooting in action rifle matches I've had the barrels on a 20 inch Hbar hot enough to start giving heat banding through an optic at a lowly 6x magnification.   Effects of heat mirage on the optics aside, testing for the way the barrel shoots when hot is a totally different thing, 3 shot groups is hardly enough of a sample size to give a good idea of how the rifle is performing.


I wish the testing magazines would get the heck away from the stupid 3 shot groups, even the 5 shot groups.   Unless they start doing the averages of like 10 3 shot groups or 5 5 shot groups.

I shoot 5-shot groups at 100yds off my competition rests, and try to shoot at least five of those groups. If I only have one 20-round box of ammo, I only shoot four groups unless the ammo has enough promise to make me buy more of it. If I call the rifle a "1 moa  shooter" then it means that all five groups were less than 1" center-to-center at 100yds, not that it shot one group less than 1" or averaged less than 1". I've only shot three guns ever that I called "1/2 MOA" rifles.

Well said and I agree, Uglygun.

Heck, I could get a 1 inch group from my 3 shot-group at 200 meters, which speaks for nothing.

10 shot group is the minimum for consistency.

thx 4 the info, so i take it that you all use scopes at 100yds to get  the best groups ?

I use a 20 or 30 round shot group as a final accuracy test.  3 and 5 round groups will get you on the paper at the range, but the larger the group the better.

An undetected flyer on a 3 or 5 round group will really mess up a zero.  You can discount these on 10 or 20 round groups.

-- Chuck

I shoot 5 round groups off a bench with the butt supported as well. The only range I have access to is 100yd. I let the barrel completely cool between groups. I sight my rifle to hit 3.5" above the point of aim. With my ammo and scope setup, that puts me dead on at 300yd. Drives the range officers nuts, they don't understand why I'm not in the bullseye!

10 Shot groups at 200 yds then divide by 2 and you get MOA.

10 shot groups here.